Booker encounters bumps on possible path to Senate

FILE - In a Saturday, June 8, 2013 file photo, Newark Mayor Cory Booker announces his plans to run for the U.S. Senate seat that opened with the death of Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) during a news conference in Newark, N.J. Booker, 44, is currently serving in his second term as mayor. At center is former Sen. Bill Bradley. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz, File)
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FILE - In a Saturday, June 8, 2013 file photo, Newark Mayor Cory Booker announces his plans to run for the U.S. Senate seat that opened with the death of Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.) during a news conference in Newark, N.J. Booker, 44, is currently serving in his second term as mayor. At center is former Sen. Bill Bradley. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz, File)
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Though he swears his allegiance to his adopted city, critics say he cares more about building his national brand than fixing the city's systemic problems of crime and joblessness.

"Our infamous name for him is `Mayor Hollywood,' because he's never here," said Newark community activist Donna Jackson. "Or we call him `Story Looker,' because every time you look around, he has another story."

Critics see the rescue of a woman from a burning house and subsequent tweets about the experience (he has 1.4 million Twitter followers) as self-promotional, and say his investment in the downtown has come at the expense of neighborhoods where blight and crime persist. Critics say his trip to California the day after announcing his Senate candidacy for a fundraiser hosted by Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is more evidence that he has already put Newark, and New Jersey, in his rearview mirror.

Supporters say Booker has reinvigorated the city.

He has attracted hundreds of millions in philanthropic money - including a $100 million grant from Zuckerberg to improve city schools - cleaned up parks and revitalized a once-moribund downtown that now boasts Panasonic's headquarters, a sparkling new hotel, loft apartments with exposed brick walls, and increased commerce, including a trendy restaurant specializing in gourmet mac and cheese.

Don Katz, founder and CEO of Audible.com, an audiobook producer and Amazon subsidiary that relocated its headquarters to Newark six years ago, sees a vibrant city that abounds with cultural, culinary and entertainment options, and says he has never regretted moving the company from suburban Wayne to urban Newark.

He said he found Booker to be "an incredibly articulate visionary" whose ideas for urban transformation through the political system resonated with Katz. Both are also like-minded on school reform; among Katz's 600 employees in Newark are interns and graduates of Newark charter schools.

Booker is aware of his detractors but is undeterred by them, beginning with former Mayor Sharpe James, who won re-election against the up-and-coming-councilman in 2002 after a bruising battle documented in the Academy Award-nominated documentary "Street Fight."

"I've heard it," he said, "too much Twitter from the mayor, too much exposure. There's not a criticism I haven't heard over the years. I've heard it all. But there's one thing everyone has to admit about my life as a professional, from my days working in housing high-rises here in Newark as a tenants' rights attorney to my time as mayor, is that I do not run from challenges. I run toward them."

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Contributing to this report were Associated Press writers Katie Zezima and Samantha Henry in Newark and Geoff Mulvihill in Haddonfield.